Arizona immigration law: New push for reform

Furor in Arizona spurs Dems in D.C. to act; GOP skeptical

by Erin Kelly - Apr. 30, 2010 12:00 AMRepublic Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - As hopes for Republican support fade, Senate Democratic leaders on Thursday unveiled a push for comprehensive immigration reform aimed in part at stopping Arizona's tough immigration-enforcement law from spreading to other states.

"Democrats and Republicans agree on one thing: The immigration system is broken and needs to be fixed," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said at a Capitol Hill news conference. "We are offering this framework as an invitation to our Republican colleagues: Work with us to solve this problem that has plagued us for far too long."

But that invitation was met with skepticism by some key Republicans, including Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who this week abandoned efforts to work with Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., on a bipartisan bill. He was the only Republican working on the bill.

When it was clear that Graham was out, Democrats moved ahead with their own proposal, in part to respond to calls for action by Hispanic rights groups. Hispanic voters, who helped propel Barack Obama into the White House in 2008 after he pledged to make immigration reform a priority, make up an important part of Democrats' political base.

But it is unclear whether the president will throw his weight behind the latest proposal, which would require that border security be significantly tightened before the government could offer a path to citizenship to the estimated 11 million immigrants in the country illegally.

On Wednesday, Obama said Congress may lack the "appetite" to take on immigration during an election year in which Democrats are expected to lose seats in the House and Senate. But in a statement Thursday, Obama praised the proposal.

"The next critical step is to iron out the details of a bill," he said. "We welcome that discussion, and my administration will play an active role in engaging partners on both sides of the aisle to work toward a bipartisan solution that is based on the fundamental concept of accountability that the American people expect and deserve."

Rodolfo Espino, an assistant professor of political science at Arizona State University, said the mixed messages could simply be the result of Obama not wanting to raise expectations too high.

Espino warned that Congress' window of opportunity to act on the hot-button topic is shrinking fast.

"If you push this too close to primary- and general-election dates, I just don't see something very good coming out with respect to a wise immigration-reform policy," he said. "As you start pushing closer and closer to that Tuesday in November, you're going to have some Democrats, particularly some of your moderate, vulnerable Democrats, who are going to start waffling a bit more."

In a joint statement, Graham and Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said the immigration proposal is political gamesmanship. "It poisons the well for those of us who are working toward a more secure border and responsible, bipartisan reform of our immigration laws," the statement said.

But Schumer said he is serious about reform and is continuing to talk with moderate Republican senators about signing onto the proposal, which would, among other things, bar states and municipalities from enacting their own Arizona-style rules and penalties related to immigration because those rules could "undermine federal policies."

The Arizona law, signed last week by Gov. Jan Brewer, makes it a state crime to be in Arizona illegally and requires police and other law-enforcement agents to check documents of people they reasonably suspect to be illegal.

A new Gallup Poll indicates that 39 percent of Americans support the law, 30 percent oppose it and 31 percent have not heard of it or have no opinion. The telephone survey was taken Tuesday and Wednesday and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Attorney General Eric Holder is reviewing the law's constitutionality.

Tamar Jacoby, president of the pro-reform ImmigrationWorks USA, has warned that a politically motivated, all-Democratic push for immigration reform could dramatically set back efforts to enact a new comprehensive policy. But she said it's too soon to write off the latest Senate proposal as a political gambit and remains cautiously optimistic.

"There's still a chance that this isn't just playing politics with it," said Jacoby, whose organization backs reform from a center-right, pro-business perspective. "There are signs that they are still making some effort into making it a bipartisan push. Of course, it also still has a chance to go off the rails, but we so far are still walking that fine line."

Democrats acknowledged they cannot pass the bill without help from at least a handful of Republican senators. House Democratic leaders have said they are waiting for the Senate to take action first.

"The urgency of immigration reform cannot be overstated," Schumer said.